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The front of a house in Vineyard that will be renovated into a temporary firehouse. An update will add red brick.

Courtesy Vineyard City

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This map shows the location of the new Vineyard firehouse, marked by the red square.

Courtesy Vineyard City

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Vineyard City, which has seen substantial growth over the past few years, will be getting a firehouse within the next year, something the growing city has been lacking.

City Manager Eric Ellis said Vineyard still will be contracting with the Orem Fire Department, which also services Lindon, but the new firehouse will allow for firefighters to be in a central location.

According to a city Facebook post, the firehouse will be located in the Cottonwoods neighborhood near 300 West.

Ellis said having the firehouse in the city will be a great “community builder” and will improve emergency response time.

“This will improve response times greatly and really just get them to be part of our community,” he said.

The firehouse will be a temporary location for the next five to 10 years and will consist of a residential home for the firefighters and a large detached garage for a fire truck and ambulance.

Mayor Julie Fullmer said the city has an “incredible” partnership with the Orem Fire Department and they’re excited to bring them into the community.

“The central location serves as a vital hub of safety and protection on the west side of our community, giving us a browsing range of reach, with faster response, connecting our community to our service men and women, ensuring that our community is always cared for in emergencies,” she said in a statement.

Fullmer said the city began a study on response time, service and cost last year and began to review facility reuse and temporary options.

Ellis said once a new city hall is built, the current city hall will be expanded to be used for both firefighters and police officers. Once the move to the city hall property is made, the city will sell the firehouse.

“It’s an ideal investment to sell to someone in the community that wants a dream shop,” he said.

Vineyard has seen significant growth in the last several years, from around 3,200 residents in 2015 to an estimated 14,535 in 2022.

The city also will soon be adding a 700-acre mixed-used development, Utah City, which will include hundreds of housing units. Currently, the closest fire station to Vineyard is in Orem, just east of Interstate 15 off of 400 North.

“The city’s been saving funding for this for quite some time, and so we have enough saved up to have that house built and have it all outfitted and ready for the fire folks to move into it,” Ellis said. The estimated cost for the firehouse is just under $1.5 million, he said, and should be completed in about nine to 12 months.

The new firehouse was discussed during last week’s Vineyard City Council work session and still needs official approval from the entire council at its meeting next Wednesday.

Ellis said this project has been a priority for the city long before he became city manager last year and he’s grateful for the thoughtful effort the city put in.

“This is a culmination of a lot of years of work from our prior council and from our mayor, Julie Fullmer,” he said. “And I would give them huge kudos for being willing to approach it the right way and land on something that really worked for us for the next five-plus years.”

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